Hi Jack from Star, Idaho.  A while back in a post I said I had torn out a great deal of my railroad simply because I didn't like it.  Here are a few photos showing some of the rebuilt part and especially home made trees using furnace filter, dowels, and ideas from Joe's DVD's.  I plan to show a lot  more of my layout soon but this will give you an idea that I love the wooded regions of the Pacific Northwest.  So far I have built dozens of the furnace filter trees and I find it rewarding to create different looks in each and every tree.  Some of the trees in the background are factory trees but that will be the last of those I plant.  I hope you like what you see. 

Sun light through the trees 

Recently cut down snag 

Three trunk conifer 

Now just a place to plant these

MTH Cab Forward pulling SP Daylight 16 car passenger train (Fantastic loco, runs like a swiss watch,  I would highly recommend it even though it did not pull passenger but I just liked the combination.  However, maybe it did, I really do not know for sure.)  My lay out has five different levels of track and is placed in a 16 X 29 ft room.  The hood over the upper level is lighted over all but eight feet of line and is adjustable for different lighting effects.

Lightning Struck conifer (The tree really is not that white, the flash washed out the true color some what)

Old burned snag with dead needles on the tree

These are just a few of the trees I have been creating.  Forest floors definitely need a lot of debris to create a more realistic scene.  I have been thinking about posting a blog on the process I go through to create these trees.  Everyone does it a little different and sharing our work only makes us better at model railroading.  The foundation in the back ground of the last photo is for a future land mark that I am building now.

Jack